Citius, altius, fortius. In the name of all competitors, I promise that
we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding
by the rules that govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship,
for the glory of sport and the honour of our teams. With that said
and a copy of Eidos Interactive's Sydney 2000 in my CD-ROM, let
the button-mashing begin!

Olympic-style video games have been popular since the days of the Atari 2600
and Commodore 64. What makes Eidos Interactive's Sydney 2000
so unique is the incredible variation of events covered. There are
12 Olympic-based events in total including the 100M Sprint, 110M
Hurdles, Hammer, Javelin, Triple Jump, High Jump, 100M
Freestyle Swimming, 10M Platform Diving, Kayak K1 Slalom,
Super Heavyweight Weight Lifting, Olympic Spring Cycling and
Skeet Shooting. It covers track & field, aquatics and everything in
between, but there's a catch. Just for the sake of an analogy, and
probably not a good one at that, pretend that I've just given you a
variety of fruits (apricots, peaches, bananas, etc.), but as you bite
into these delicious fruits, you realize that they all taste the same.
They all taste like chicken. There might be 12 Olympic-based
events, but it's unfortunate they all taste like chickenů or something
like that.

The problem with all of the events in question is that they all come
down to one thing, smashing two or three buttons in order to win.
With only the exceptions of Skeet Shooting, Platform Diving and
Kayak K1 Slalom, each of the other events is controlled using only
a couple of keys. Two keys are assigned as 'power' keys and
another is assigned as the 'action' key (or you can use buttons on
your gamepad). The objective of each of the events is to smash the
power keys as quickly as you can in order to give your various
athletes the power they need to perform their event. For example,
if you enter the 100M Sprint, you'll have to smash those two power
keys as quickly as you can to make your sprinter run faster. The
quicker you mash those keys, the faster he moves, so get ready to
mash those keys. The same holds true for many of the events.
Weight Lifting is done much the same way, by mashing the power
keys. Once you've reached a certain zone of power, you than hit
the 'action' key, which makes the athlete lift the selected weight.
Once you've done that, it's back to mashing the power keys until
you hit the next stage. Events such as the Hammer, Javelin and
Hurdles all require the same sequence of power key mashing
mixed with an action key here and there, but it's all the same.

There are several game modes in Sydney 2000. A Coaching Mode
allows you to practice the principals involved in many of the
events as well as race or compete against images of your previous
trials. The two main game modes are Arcade and Olympics. The
arcade game allows you to compete against up to as many as
seven computer opponents. You can select your country and
difficulty level as well as your opponents' country, in case you
have a yearning to defeat a particular country. The Arcade mode
allows you to compete in all 12 of the events and awards points
based on placement and how well you did in the competitions. It's
an excellent mode that you'll probably default too most of the
time, if only because the Olympic Mode has one extremely tedious
aspect.

The Olympic Mode is much like the Arcade Mode. You begin by
selecting your country of origin and then set off to compete in all
12 of the Olympic events. However, once you select your event,
you must train your athlete first before competing. That's not to say
you can't jump right into the event, but you're athlete will come in
dead last without question due to a lack of strength, technique and
morale. You must train your athlete to improve their upper and
lower body strength as well as both technique and morale. This is
done by performing exercises such as squats, bench presses and
treadmill work. In order to achieve optimal performance, you'll
basically have to perform about a dozen such exercises, all of
which require you to mash those buttons again. The Olympic Mode
has been poorly designed for one specific reason. You must train
each of the athletes in all twelve events and many of the training
sessions repeat themselves over and over. There's no way to skip
the training schedule without finishing in dead last in the
competitions. It's a nice mode if you're really looking to simulate
the entire training process, but I'm pretty sure many people will
avoid the Olympic Mode and head straight for the Arcade Mode
because of such a tedious process.

Sydney 2000 also features a Head To Head Mode, which allows
players to load up teams nurtured in the single player Olympic
Mode and go head-to-head against other nurtured teams in the
Arcade Mode. This mode serves little purpose when it comes down
to it. In terms of multiplayer, the only mode that supports any is the
Arcade Mode, which lets you play with up to 8 human players. The
multiplayer mode suffers from the same issues that the single
player mode does, it basically comes down to which individual can mash the
buttons the quickest. The multiplayer mode can in fact slow down
the game's pace when you've got 8 players all doing the Skeet
Shooting or the Kayak Slalom.

Visually, Sydney 2000 certainly receives a gold medal. The
true-to-life Olympic environments are smack on and the events are
presented as if seen on television. Replays from every conceivable
angle ring out when the competition is done and the athletes look
incredible. Unique athlete models help create a global
environment where you never see the same athlete twice. In terms
of the audio, the commentary is provided by the team of Steve
Ryder, Stuart Storey and Paul Dickenson, the BBC Olympic
commentators, They do a commendable job bringing life to some
of the events. Grunts, groans and joyful screams can be heard from
the athletes throughout and even the crowd gets into it from time
to time. The overall presentation of Sydney 2000 is certainly the
best we've seen in an Olympic-style game.

The lack of innovation in terms of the controls gives Sydney 200 a
console feel to it, an impression that is re-iterated when it comes
time to enter your name in the Arcade mode. You have to enter a
three-letter name for your Olympic squad, one that is selected
by scrolling through the alphabet like you would in a console title.
This is the PC version, can't you just let us type our name in? I had
difficulties in a couple of events as well. The Skeet Shooting was
especially difficult because of aiming issues. It seemed there was
a slight delay when targeting the discs. I also had some difficulty
in the Cycling event, where I was able to control the power of the
first cyclist, but unable to control the second or the third cyclist. Of course it resulted in
a last place finish each time because of the lack of speed. I'm not
sure if I just didn't understand what I needed to do, or whether
there's a bug there that needs to be fixed.

Sydney 2000 certainly looks good out of the blocks, but as it sprints
down the lane, it's flaws take over and it struggles to cross the finish
line. The impressive variety of events is seemingly erased due to
the ancient control system that relegates all the events to simple
button mashing experiences. The Olympic Mode is plagued by
repetitive training sessions that will no doubt have athletes taking
the Arcade route looking to compete right away. In terms of
replayability, there are really only a few solid hours here before
you realize you've mastered most of the events. It's a noble effort,
but Sydney 2000 can't be recommended unless you crave the days
of Epic Games' Olympic endeavours.